The University of Wyoming Center on Aging (WyCOA) has announced it will host the Rocky Mountain Alzheimer’s Summit for healthcare professionals, direct care workers, older adults and caregivers of individuals with dementia Wednesday through Friday, May 18-20.
According to WyCOA, Participants will have the opportunity to attend virtually or in person at Cheyenne’s Little America Conference Center. Registration is $25 just for the Caregiver Workshops May 18, scheduled from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Cost for the two-day summit for health care and social service providers May 19-20 is $125. The May 19 session is from 8:45 a.m.- 4:45 p.m., and the next day’s session is from 8:45 a.m.- 3 p.m. Up to 18.75 continuing education credits will be available for professional attendees.
Cost is the same for online and in-person attendance. With the theme of “A BOLD Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease,” the summit will feature national experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s BOLD (Building Our Largest Dementia) Public Health Centers of Excellence on Alzheimer’s disease. For more information and to register, visit the WyCOA website here.
According to Dementia-Friendly Wyoming, a department of the HUB on Smith, 9,400 people are currently living with Alzheimer’s Disease in Wyoming. This number does not include those living with other types of dementia.
There are 28,000 unpaid caregivers (a three to one ratio) supporting those living with Alzheimer’s. This number is decreasing drastically creating a greater need in the Cowboy State for community involvement.
By 2025, Dementia-Friendly Wyoming estimates that 13,000 people will have Alzheimer’s Disease, a 39% increase, the 9th highest in the U.S. Seventy percent of all of those living with dementia continue to live in the community (not in an institution) and one in seven of those lives alone.
In Sheridan, almost 25% of the population will be 65 or older by 2025, according to the DFW statistics.
“It is crucial that family caregivers, health care professionals, social service providers and community members are educated about Alzheimer’s disease and feel prepared to provide the best care possible,” Associate Director of WyCOA and Clinical Associate Professor in the UW Department of Psychology Catherine Carrico said.
For more information on the upcoming summit, call WyCOA at (307) 766-2829 or email wycoa@uwyo.edu.
For more information on Dementia-Friendly Wyoming and the resources they offer, visit their webpage, here.
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Last modified: April 7, 2022